When sending a message through virtually any type of messaging system, a message sender may wish to receive a delivery notification indicating a delivery status (e.g., successful or failed delivery) of the message being sent. Accordingly, many messaging systems do provide various types of delivery notifications, using various associated techniques. In many cases, however, the techniques for providing delivery notifications are inefficient or otherwise unsatisfactory.
For example, in the context of mobile device messaging, such as the Short Message Service (SMS), text messages are often sent from a subscriber of one mobile service provider to a subscriber of another mobile service provider. Such text messages are often sent over multiple network connections, including being routed between the mobile service providers using a third party service hub. It is possible to send delivery notifications for such text messages. However, existing techniques generally rely on some or all of the same network connections and service hub for the delivery notifications as are used for the corresponding text messages, themselves. As a result, if a group of text messages are sent with delivery notifications requested, a network capacity required may be effectively doubled as compared to sending just the messages themselves. For messaging systems that are already high-volume, such network capacity requirements may be untenable.
Nonetheless, in text messaging and many other messaging scenarios, delivery notifications may remain a high priority for individual and/or business message senders, as well as for messaging service providers. Consequently, an efficient, scalable, cost-effective, and reliable delivery notification service would be advantageous.